"This union was made all the easier by the fact that meanwhile another important British steamship concern, the Leyland line, had been acquired by Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan in the spring of 1901. This line, itself the fruit of several consolidations, controlled the largest British tonnage in the North Atlantic trade. It owned no fast mail ships, no greyhounds. But it did possess forty or fifty good, useful steamships of moderate speed, many of them of large tonnage, and fit for passengers as well as freight. The main Leyland service lay between Boston or New York on this side, and Liverpool or London on the other, and the business of the company had been so profitable for a long term of years that its shares were quoted at a handsome premium. Mr. Morgan paid a generous price for his maritime investment. It is said that he gave £14 10s. for each £10 share, or a bonus of 45 per cent. But amazement at Mr. Morgan’s ‘liberality’ ceased when the next stage in the great, far-sighted negotiation was unfolded. "This was the dramatic uniting of the Leyland line with the American and Red Star lines of the International Navigation Company, and the Atlantic Transport line, another British steam fleet owned by American capital. Later still it transpired that the famous White Star line of fast mail, passenger, and freight ships and the smaller but excellent Dominion line were embraced in the huge consolidation. The White Star was one of the two lines—the Cunard was the other—which performed the British mail service between Queenstown and New York. Its fleet included the great liners _Oceanic_ and _Celtic_, the swift _Teutonic_ and _Majestic_, and the favorite _Britannic_ and _Germanic_ which had held ocean records in their day, together with a considerable number of large and efficient freighters. The American purchase of the White Star line was long disputed, and when it was finally confirmed, something like consternation seized the British press and people, for the White Star fleet had been regarded as distinctively a British institution as the Bank of England. Its fast ships received not only the mail pay of the post-office, but the subventions of the Admiralty, and were enrolled on the ‘merchant cruiser’ list." Winthrop L. Marvin, The Great Ship "Combine" (American Review of Reviews, December, 1902). {116}